Budget Mining Rig
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Whats your idea of budget?
Your best option is probably to look at how many PCIe slots your current motherboard has and buy video cards to max it out. You may need a larger (or second) PSU for this.
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As it is, I have to let go of my current computer so I was thinking of building a rig from scratch.
A rough estimation of my budget would be between 500 and 700 euros. I know I probably won’t have much hashrate with that but it’s just to get me going. But anyway, building a rig you don’t need CPU power nor lot of RAM right, I was thinking of a very basic conf with not so bad graph cards, what do you think ? -
yup, go cheap on CPU and RAM. Put your money into PSU and GPUs
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Man, these “what-do-I-need-to-build-a-rig” questions are sooo, so loaded with exceptions, dependencies, if’s and’s and but’s…
If you want to build a dedicated mining rig (lowest cost/highest output), you’ll be building something that will NOT be used for, replace, or even look like a normal computer. If you want a gpu “hobby rig” that doubles as a (killer) gaming system, the components would be very different.
You might be able to put a 700 euro (gaming) system together with one fast gpu (300eu) or a couple slower ones (150eu each) and get between 500-700KH/s. Hashrates over that and you’re looking at mining-rig configs (cheap mobo/proc/no case) or just spending more money.
Hash speed is a matter of money… how fast do you want to go? :laughing:
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Well that’s exactly my question ^^.
I intend on building a rig which only purpose would be to mine, I’m not so much of a gamer anyway. What’s the best move to fit my budget, buy one R9 380X or a couple of slower ones ? Only the hash rate prevails !
I do know that the more money you put in your rig the faster you’ll go but I want to begin slowly. -
@Saltaris Well a lot of “pro” miners use the ASRock H81 pro btc mobo since it has 6 expansion slots and is cheap.
Remember, GPU mining only requires 1x pcie; 4x, 8x, 16x, Gen1, Gen3, it’s all meaningless to mining algorithms. So, you can add a honkin’ R9-390x or titan gtx to a 1x slot via pci riser ribbon or 1x-16x cable and get the same hashrate.
You don’t need a case either; most people come up with some interesting and ingenious mounting setups dirt cheap. Here’s a whole rig porn subtopic on the ethereum mining forum that’ll make you smile. Just have to be very careful of the amperage being thrown around a 5 or 6-gpu system laid out bare…
Cards, cards… If you have a preference for AMD or nVidia, linux or windows, it can make a difference. I use what I know works but that can be different for each coin mined. Linux is free but not without its difficulties — and distro requirements.
If you’re cautious you can sometimes find perfectly good cards for mining from ebay, all caveats apply. Going for the long-haul, better to buy new and have a warranty.
You can peruse this list of mining hardware and hashrates, but keep in mind some of these numbers are inflated because… well, boys will be boys.
Hope it helps to start, trying to teach the man to fish rather than just hand it over!
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Everything I needed to know is in your message already, thanks for your help bluebox.
I am bidding fast and furiously on ebay to get some AMD GPUs for an interesting price (6870, 7770, 7870, 7970, r9 270, r9 280, r9 290) let’s hope some of my bids make the cut. It’s fun to see that they design motherboards for coin mining ^^.
May I ask what you would recommend for cooling, a good ol’ fashioned open window or some water cooling system ? -
@Saltaris I wouldn’t bother with water cooling unless you care about too much fan noise from the gpu’s. Besides, they’re notorious for leaking, and I don’t think the pumps are designed for 24/7 mining, mostly for gamers. :)
If you get any used cards, plan on disassembling the heat sinks, cleaning and applying artic silver thermal paste (best kind on the planet). New fans for them can be purchased cheaply if you need to replace. Mounting them externally is best (like the rig examples I linked to), rather than housing them in a case; you can point a small house fan at them for circulation if needed.
Just be sure to get the right modular power supply with all the pci boost cables they’ll need, otherwise a second psu can be used supplementally if you search around for how to do it (not hard). A good quality psu is critical for 24/7 mining; EVGA makes a really good series I’m told. I’ve used remanned Corsairs from newegg, never had a problem.
The btc board is not necessary; if you’re only going to use 2 or 3 gpu’s you could get a gaming mobo so you don’t have to mess with risers. Just beware that stuffing multiple double-wide gpu’s next to each other really impacts cooling, therefore lifespan. It’s not just the gpu chip; the memory chips heat up and need space too.
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I run two rigs with 7950’s, I built them to mine Litecoin way back so they have paid for themselves by now. Ive read that the new R9 cards are the way to go unless you can get a deal on used stuff.
Do youself a favor and spend the extra on a quality PSU, it makes all the difference! Also, if you opt for an open air rig and risers, consider the USB risers. Ive used the ribbon cable ones for years and recently got USB ones… very nice. Although I may sell ya ribbon risers for cheap! ;)For cooling, I say fans. AC is expensive, water is expensive, air is cheap. I have a room that only has mining gear in it, Ive got a window fan set to suck out the heat - it works pretty well so far. Summer is going to push it to the limit tho Im afraid.
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Good to know. I think I’ll spend extra bucks on the PSU, one of the most essential part of the rig. I’m still trying to figure out how these risers work anyway:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014ZTVZB4/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687742&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00HZ0M9F2&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=09BJM5K837AHBA8VV4PVI won my first bid today on ebay, a Sapphire 7770, not so great of a GPU you’ll say but it only cost me 30 bucks so why bother.
I will opt for a cheap AMD Sempron GPU.
I will post my progress here, thanks for your help guys :) -
USB risers are simple, the USB 3.0 standard has enough pins to handle a 1x pcie connection. The USB cable acts the same as a ribbon cable extension however instead of a ribbon its has twisted pairs of wires. Power for the GPU is supplied via an additional molex power connector, a GPU can draw up to 75 watts directly from the PCIe slot.
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Thanks for the explanation Ripped Dragon. I’ve bought one of those to try. Major update, I’ve finally put my whole config together, well I mean I bought all the parts. Here is what I bought for 685€:
GPU:
- Sapphire Radeon 7770 HD GHz Edition 1Go GDDR5
- XFX 6870 1Go
- Sapphire Radeon 7970 HD OC with Boost 3 Go
- Sapphire Radeon 7870 HD 2 Go GDDR5
- Gygabyte GV-R928XOC-3GD (rev. 1.0)
SSD - Sandisk Plus 120 Go
CPU - Intel Celeron G1820
Motherboard - ASRock H81 Pro BTC
RAM - HyperX Fury HX318C10F/4
PSU - Lepa B1000-MB MaxBron
Accessories - USB PCI-E Riser 5
The 1000W PSU was the most expensive part but you gotta power on the beast right? Now I have a question about power supply, how would you measure the amount of power you need for all your components, I’m pretty sure with the 5 gpus I already bought a 1000W power supply is probably not enough? Should I look for the power consumption in all my components specs and add them up?
I also followed bluebox advice and bought Arctic thermal paste. I can’t wait to put everything together!
Thanks again for your help guys!
